The Mountain Between Us (2017) * *

Directed by:  Hany Abu-Assad

Starring:  Kate Winslet, Idris Elba, Beau Bridges, Dermot Mulroney

The universal instinct for survival amongst the harshest of conditions carries The Mountain Between Us for a while, but the movie uses this as the setup for a less convincing love story.    The leads, photojournalist Alex (Winslet) and neurosurgeon Ben (Elba), are stranded in the snowy mountains after their charter plane crashes.    With little chance of rescue, the wounded, but resourceful duo makes their way down the mountain and obligatorily fall in love.     As The Mountain Between Us opens, Alex and Ben are strangers stranded at an Idaho airport because all flights were cancelled due to a storm.    Alex approaches Ben about splitting the cost of a charter.    Both have to be someplace desperately the next day, with Ben needing to perform life-saving surgery on a child and Alex getting married (yes, married) the very next day.    So away we go. 

The charter is flown by Walter (Bridges), a kind, chatty soul who mistakenly assumes Ben and Alex are a couple and flies his planes with his dog in tow.    Walter suffers a stroke mid-flight and the plane crashes in the mountains.     At first, Alex and Ben stay put with the wreckage to tend to their wounds, but once a cougar shows up to try and make Alex and the dog into his next meal, the two decide the brave the elements and hope for the best.    They fight along the way.   And the dog treks along.  

Winslet's Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio had his own battle against torturous winter elements in The Revenant (2015), so now we have Winslet's Revenant.    Ben and Alex are nice enough people, but kind of bland, and there is a mystery as to why Ben wears a wedding ring but doesn't mention his spouse.   A digital recorder is helpfully on hand for Alex to listen to while Ben forages for stuff so she (and we) can figure it out.     Each person's marital status is irrelevant anyway since they are going to fall in love whether they (or we) like it or not.     Alex's fiancé (Mulroney) should have seen Alex not being home the day before their wedding as a huge red flag.   

Winslet has a unique capability of making the most ridiculous material palatable.     I'm not sure if Elba as a romantic lead is his strong suit.   He broods too much as if channeling his Gunslinger from The Dark Tower.   He and Winslet do not have much chemistry, as if neither is convinced they belong together even though the story requires it.     They stumble on to an abandoned cabin, which thankfully is furnished with a bed and couch so they can avoid having sex on the floor.    I found it odd some of the furniture was fitted with covers.    My mind wandered as I began to wonder what became of the owners.

I also wonder why the dog is absent for long stretches while Alex and Ben hang out in the cabin or make their way down the mountainside.    Especially the cabin.    Is the poor dog kept outside so Alex and Ben can get down to business?   And why do Alex, Ben, nor the dog seem to lose any weight?    Winslet and Elba still look far too pretty to convince us they survived such a harsh ordeal.

I won't spoil the ending, but it provides a lot of contrivances which keep Alex and Ben apart.    The whole mountain stuff just seemed like foreplay since the movie is far more interested in the romantic story.     Which is fine, but these two characters aren't ones who will exist in our memory as a classic mismatched romantic drama couple.     If you made John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga from 1985's The Sure Thing the bickering couple here, maybe we would have had something.